The 2015 Achieve Today Fall Semester Scholarship is ELIZABETH GARCIA!
UNIVERSITYof CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ

It was a difficult decision because there were so many quality submissions but we felt Elizabeth's submission best embodied the requirements we had set out. 
Congratulations to her and to all who put their time and effort into applying. 

First off, sorry this is so long, but there is so much to tell!!

I am home from Spain and I wanted to share some highlights from my trip with you and Achieve Today.  It was AMAZING!! I went with 17 other students from my university and 2 professors. We landed in Madrid and spent the first week and a half touring some of the main cities in Spain.  We saw places such as the cathedral where Columbus' tomb is said to be in Seville to the Alhambra in Granada.  It was a crazy adventure.  We took a giant bus from city to city, but once you are off the main highways, the streets are very narrow.  I could never be a bus driver in Spain...I can't believe we made it around some of the sharp turns. I spent most of those bus trips catching up on sleep...we were constantly on the move that first week.  

Anyways, after the traveling part, we arrived to Salamanca, which is about two hours from Madrid and is said to be home to the prettiest plaza in Spain.  Every city in Spain has a main plaza. Salamanca's plaza was most beautiful at night.  The way the lights lit up the buildings was incredible. My host mom was Carmen.  She was an older, married woman with one adult son, whom I never met.  She was very easy to talk to and by the second week there, I wasn't having a hard time understanding her. She had been hosting international students for about thirty years!  I shared a room with another girl from my university and each weekday, we had about a five minute walk to the school we were attending.  My sister, who also went on the trip, had a thirty minute walk to school every day from her host mom's house!  I think I get the better end of that deal. 

Classes were from 9:30-2, a break for lunch was from 2-4, and then from 4-6 we went on different tours around Salamanca, and from 6-8 we had a culture class. Dinner wasn't until at the earliest, 8:30.  I think the eating schedule was the hardest to adapt to!  The food was delicious though, but occasionally I missed American food, like PB&J. 

Honestly, though the program was a lot of fun, it was much more rigorous than I had expected.  We had vocabulary quizzes every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday after the culture class and tests usually every Friday.  We had a final paper due at the end of the program.  The program gave me 12 credit hours and completed my Spanish minor.  To celebrate surviving the program, the group spent three days relaxing on a beach in northern Spain, while our professors graded our papers. 

I am so so glad I got to go and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.  I was challenged in many ways, pushed outside of my comfort zone, exposed to new foods, ideas and people, and I improved tremendously in Spanish, which was my main goal!  My favorite thing in Spain was visiting the gardens!  

Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone at Achieve Today!! I am so grateful for the scholarship I received.  I will never forget my experience abroad.  I attached a few pictures. Pictures definitely don't do the historical architecture justice, but at least you can see some of what I saw.  

Regarding my plans for the future, I can't believe it, but thanks to completing my minor abroad in the summer semester, I am now going to be graduating from undergrad with a B.A. in sociology in December! So soon.  Because I have the "extra" spring semester, I am  hoping to use it to do the Disney College Program from January-May. I am in the process of finalizing my application.  Whether I am accepted or not, my plan is to attend graduate school at Truman for their Masters of Arts and Education program. Ultimately, I want to teach elementary school and possibly work with ESL students.  I apply for graduate school in October this year as well and they will hold my spot if I am accepted to the Disney program. The coming months hold a lot of unknowns as I await to hear about the statuses of my applications, but I will wait with a positive mindset. I believe that I can achieve anything I put my mind to.  

I am sincerely so grateful! 

Shelby Kovack

9/20/2014 - Fall Semester Applicants 
Thank you all so very much for your interest in this scholarship! We’re grateful for all of the video and essay submissions you provided. It was amazing to see the response from this and we sincerely hope that you are now more aware of how the Law of Attraction effects your life. After much consideration, we have chosen a winner. The winning submission has requested to remain anonymous. We wanted to share the winning submission (and that will be a requirement for future scholarships winners) but we also respect their wishes and will send the scholarship money to their chosen institution so funds can be distributed for use.

Keep in Mind:
We wish we could give a scholarship award to everyone who submitted. There were several submissions that stood out as potential winners. If you did not win this time do not let this or anything discourage you from pursuing higher education and moving forward in your lives! If you were not selected this time, feel free to make any changes, redo’s, ect. to your submissions and resubmit your essay or video (along with the content contribution agreement) before the next deadline of Dec 31, 2014. We encourage you to do this!

Please know:
The Selection Committee spent many hours going through each qualified submission. They chose finalists from the individuals they felt had the best understanding of what the Law of Attraction is, how they’ve connected the importance of the law to success in their lives, and why living the law can improve their future.

Thank you all again for your effort and heartfelt submissions! We wish you well on your journey through life and hope you continue to awaken your greatness!

Best Regards,

All of us here at Achieve Today
“All the principles of heaven and earth are living inside you.”  - Morihei Ueshiba

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